Jonathan Meese lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg where from the outset, he displayed a special talent for effectively combining textures, colours, unorthodox materials and inappropriate images. He coincided there with his contemporaries John Bock and Christian Jankowski. Other artists Meese has frequently collaborated with in his projects, like Martin Kippenberger, Franz Ackermann, Daniel Richter and Albert Oehlen, also passed through this same institution before him. This university was key to the artist’s training, not only because of the connections it enabled him to make with other creators, but also because of the exhibitions organised there; during the period when he studied there, exhibitions by Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy could be seen, making a strong impression on him. And this was also where Meese made an in-depth study of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, who would later become an important reference point in his subsequent work. His time at the university was therefore vital for the shaping of the bases that would constitute his work as a mature artist.
I.A.
